Cover
Color page: Luffy is sitting on Laboon and smiling. In the background are a grinning buggy on the left and a grim smoker with two cigars in his mouth on the right.
Storyline
When an old man comes out of the house, Sanji and Zoro initially mistake him for a flower. The group acts suspicious of the grandpa, not knowing if he is friend or foe. Meanwhile, Usopp has determined that the old man has finished off the Kraken. The crew waits for a reaction from the man, but he doesn’t make a sound, sitting down on a deck chair outside his house and flipping through a newspaper, which upsets Sanji. Usopp gets nervous again and threatens to make use of cannons. While Sanji is upset over something Grandpa said, Zoro asks him his name and where they are. The man introduces himself as the lighthouse keeper Krokus and makes them understand that they are in the belly of the whale. Usopp discovers that the clouds are only painted on the inside of the whale’s belly.
Just as the gang is about to sail back through a gate, everything starts shaking, revealing the supposed island to be an iron ship. Crocus explains that it’s shaking because the whale keeps banging its head against the redline. Nami deduces from the whale’s behavior and the scars on its head that it must be suffering a lot. The Straw Hats now think Crocus is trying to kill the whale from the inside.
Meanwhile, Luffy is being tossed around in the corridors of the whale’s interior, due to its turmoil.
Immediately after, the scene jumps to a woman and a man who are introduced as the undercover agents Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9. Mr. 9 says that Crocus is behind the next door and that they need to kill him. From Miss Wednesday, we learn that their town needs the whale.
Back at Luffy’s place, you get to see the end of his fall. He lands in a tunnel that looks a lot like a sewer. Then the rumbling starts again.
Crocus, meanwhile, jumps into the stomach acid and dives towards the gate. While the crew makes another attempt to get out of the whale’s stomach, Luffy runs without being able to stop towards a door in front of which the two undercover agents are getting ready to attack Crocus. Luffy runs into them and all three of them fall through the door into the stomach acid. In the time it takes the gang to pull Luffy out of the stomach acid, Crocus gives Laboon a sedative. He says Laboon has no chance of destroying the redline.
When Crocus returns, the agents are already on the The Going Merry and have noticed that Luffy and co. are pirates. Crocus yells that he will protect Laboon as long as he lives. Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday are not deterred by this, and promptly fire two bazookas at the whale’s belly. Crocus, however, is able to deflect the bullets by pouncing with his own body. It finally becomes clear that the agents want the whale for provisions. But there is no further assault by the agents, as Luffy knocks them both out.
Back on Crocus’ supposed island, he tells the Straw Hats that the whale is a so-called giant whale, which are only found in the East Blue, and that the whale’s name is Laboon. Laboon, he says, came down Reverse Mountain at that time with a band of pirates, which he followed from East Blue. The pirate gang asked Crocus to look after Laboon while they would be on their way down the Grand Line. Fifty years have passed since then, but the pirate gang never came back. Laboon, however, still thinks they will come back.
| Manga volumes | Whisky Peak Arc (Manga) |
